Del Rey: Conflict simmers over traffic woes at Stoner Elementary

Bad Karma?: Jose Benitez shows the “karma tickets” that he and others were given by Citizens of the World.

By Gary Walker
Tensions are flaring over what Del Rey residents are calling an invasion of their neighborhood by a charter school sharing the campus of Stoner Avenue Elementary School.
Angry residents who live on Lindblade and Stoner avenues claim mornings and early afternoons near their homes are flooded with the cars of parents retrieving their students from Citizens of the World, a charter school that opened in late August.
“They take up so much of our streets that it doesn’t look like a residential neighborhood,” said José Benitez, who lives on Lindblade.
At the heart of the conflict is a school entrance on Lindblade that parents from the charter use to drop off and retrieve their children each day. Benitez and his neighbors claim the entrance is the root cause of rampant double parking and traffic congestion.
But Los Angeles Unified School District officials say Citizens of the World hasn’t broken any rules.
“As discussed with the neighbors, LAUSD is complying with the law and remains open to hearing any further concerns to support what is best for students,” said a district spokeswoman.
Citizens of the World, which has schools in New York and Los Angeles, describes itself as being committed to “socio- economic, cultural and racial diversity.”
Citizens of the World Principal Allison Kerr told the Argonaut Monday that LAUSD had resolved the situation with the Lindblade entrance.
Kerr offered to elaborate later, but subsequent calls to Kerr were not returned.
At a campus meeting on Oct. 9 that included parents from both schools and LAUSD representatives, residents and Stoner parents asked the district to close the Lindblade entrance and ask the charter school to use the entrance on Braddock Drive.
The Braddock entrance is currently used by Stoner Elementary.
“I support great schools of all types. And a great school must be a great neighbor,” said Del Rey Neighborhood Council President Eric DeSobe.
“It’s imperative that both school communities work together to solve neighbors’ concerns about traffic impact during arrival and dismissal and that LAUSD explore all feasible options to remove extra traffic from streets,” DeSobe said.
According to the state Department of Education, parking and traffic is a municipal matter.
“Because the [charter school] parents are parking on the street, this is a city issue,” said a department spokeswoman.
The circumstances at Stoner are reminiscent of a similar situation at Walgrove Avenue Elementary School in Mar Vista several years ago. After Ocean Charter School opened inside Walgrove, Walgrove parents and nearby homeowners frequently complained of double parking and charter parents failing to observe traffic laws and congestion.
Benitez wrote to LAUSD Board Member Steve Zimmer, who represents Del Rey, on Aug. 9 to express his and his neighbors concerns about the charter.
“Citizens of the World Charter… has taken it upon themselves to create their own school entrance on the backside of Stoner Elementary without authorization,” Benitez wrote.
In an Aug. 11 response, Zimmer said he shared Benitez’s concerns.
“I will ask the charter office and the school to meet with stakeholders to mitigate the concerns. Please be aware that the school board has very little control over charter school co-locations,” Zimmer wrote. “We almost always end up in court.”
The California Charter Association has successfully sued LAUSD in the past over charter school facility issues.
Proposition 39, a state ballot measure approved by voters in 2000, provides charter operators with the opportunity to obtain space on traditional school campuses where classrooms are underutilized or vacant. School districts tender offers to charters at schools where these classrooms exist and charters then determine to accept or deny them.
Zimmer’s response led Benitez to think that his chance of LAUSD intervening was very small.
“I think LAUSD is more afraid of charters than of the neighbors,” Benitez said.
Zimmer indicated that he had prior experience with Citizens of the World, which has two other charters in Hollywood and Silverlake, communities that are also in his district.
“I have been in conflict with this particular charter for well over a year, but it is in their enlightened self interest to have positive relationships with their community,” Zimmer wrote.
Kerr said Citizens of the World has distributed what she called “karma tickets” to Stoner parents and residents of the surrounding neighborhood to place on the vehicles of those charter parents who cause traffic jams.
Benitez scoffed at the idea.
“Karma tickets? That was an insult,” he said.
According to Benitez, the solution to the problem is Citizens of the World using the Braddock entrance.
“As simple as it sounds, that would solve everything,” he said.
Gary@ArgonautNews.com

52 Comments

mm
on October 18, 2013 at 5:22 pm

Gary, did you ask Jose Benitez his profession? He’s a LAUSD teacher at Charnock Road Elementary. Interesting that you quoted Steve Zimmer who is vehemently anti-educational reform and anti-charter schools. Perhaps Jose Benitez is an union plant? You came by the school on Monday, Oct 14th after 3pm with Jose Benitez without an appointment, just before school gets out. This article was published on Wednesday, Oct 16th. You certainly did not give much time for the principal at Citizens of the World to respond. Shoddy journalism. Do you know the students of Citizens of the World Mar Vista are 4-7 years old and Jose Benitez has been spotted filming them? Do you know he lead the protest against the school on Friday, Oct 18th and passed out anti-Citizens of the World literature in the presence of the young children? Police offered security during the morning protest. How moral is his behavior? And you gave him space without doing your research. You should be ashamed of yourself. A simple google search would show Jose Benitez has a less effective to average rating as a teacher: http://projects.latimes.com/value-added/teacher/jose-adrian-benitez/

In terms of actual traffic or parking issues – have you investigated traffic and parking at other schools? Is the parking or traffic issues any different than at other schools? At Santa Monica Highschool, students often camp out on lawns of houses in the neighborhood. Once again, the children of Citizens of the World are aged 4-7 years old. Are they expected to walk to school on their own? Do your research.

Thank you MM for pointing all that out. To add to your last point…the last time i check ed legal public parking spaces are just that public parking spaces. As was said earlier, at any other school during drop off and pick hours there is going to be traffic. I didn’t know living in a home or apartment gave you some sort of right of governance to the public streets connected to those various residences.

1) CWC is an organization that is based on self-interest. Their goal is create a profitable school for “their” own population. To generate profit, they skim money nationally using “Licensing Agreements.” They ask parents for donations when public schools are free. They underpay and overwork all campus staff – principal, teachers, TAs and etc. They are known for overpaying higher level staff. They have a selective lottery system by recruiting “their” population using social networks and word of mouth.

2) CWC lies to its own population. Throughout most of the year, CWC minimized issues within the community when protests, complaints and operational errors were prevalent. Furthermore, they personally attacked leaders within the community which fueled more tension. In April, CWC exaggerated incidents calling for the LAUSD Board to protect them, but always wanting out of Stoner Elementary. By the beginning of May, CWC knew its charter was not renewed because the organization failed to submit renewal paperwork. They never informed their parents until they had no choice when Stoner Elementary was notified at the end of May. During this time, CWC committed voter fraud during the Del Rey Neighborhood Council election by having their parents vote and never disclosing that they were no longer stakeholders. In June, under much turmoil and without a site, CWC miraculously claimed Stoner Elementary as a great site and they wanted to stay. With no obligation, LAUSD offered them a split site in Westchester with moving charges. Amy Held, CWC’s Director, resigned before she could be fired after knowingly misleading the CWC community throughout the year.

3) Co-location schools do not work when certain factors are in place. First, it never works for residents and children’s safety when an unregulated entrance is built without following local zoning code, environmental impact reports, traffic studies, egress, capacity and etc. LAUSD is exempt from following all these regulations. Second, it does not work when there are contrasting demographics and classes sharing the same campus. It results in inequality, classism and segregation issues. Third, when schools do not service their local neighborhood, the community will always view as a separate exclusionary entity.

4) Karma is real. CWC has always avoided discussing or apologizing for “Karma Tickets.” The “Karma Ticket” is quintessential of who CWC is. It never occurred to them how offensive this was, how entitled it was perceived or how it would strike back. Karma spiritually led to the school’s removal and the Director’s resignation.

In conclusion, CWC and its organizational issues have been moved to Westchester’s Loyola Village and Kentwood Elementary.

If you don’t believe The Truth, there were two articles in the LA REGISTRY, two in the LA TIMES, three in LA SCHOOL REPORT and one in LA OPINION, in addition to TV media and radio: CBS, KCAL, KTLA and NPR. Citizens of the World Charter is not a viable charter school and you should not believe their rhetoric or promotional material. There are many other well respected charters to choose from.

Truth, (Mr. Benitez) please let it go. CWC is no longer in your neighborhood, a place where angry anti-charter activists were willing to commit violence against little children on behalf of their political agenda. I don’t know about you, but I think most people would agree that nearly setting a toddler on fire, then screaming at and chasing her caretaker down the road, is beyond the pale. LAUSD essentially decided a co-location at Stoner was too much of a legal liability because of the violent anti-charter people (at least one with a long criminal history) in your neighborhood willing to harm kids. Thank goodness the people of Westchester are more reasonable, peaceful people, as evidenced by comments from Kentwood’s PTO president in the latest issue of the Hometown News. When the people of Westchester heard what you guys did to CWC, they were horrified.

Most of the lies and charges you have leveled and continue to level against CWC should not even be dignified with a response. But just a few facts: CWC is a nonprofit and therefore cannot profit, by definition. All charter organizations take licensing fees so the national organization can operate. CWC’s fees are in line with and in many cases far lower than that of other charters orgs. The national org provides support in return. Someone from CWC national is currently serving as CWC’s executive director.

CWC’s charter is not up for renewal for several more years. We changed campuses. That is all. Charters change locations all the time. That does not mean the charter was not renewed. Your lack of understanding of basic facts about CWC and charters was part of the problem.

Co-locations can and do work when neighbors are reasonable people willing to have a conversation to try to solve problems — and when LAUSD is willing to help, which in this case, they were not. (They refused a simple gate change that would have diffused legitimate complaints about traffic on Lindblade.)

In your case, opposition was led by an LAUSD teacher (you or your brother?) with an anti-charter agenda, who also happens to be a part of a large landlord family with an irrational fear that a successful school in your neighborhood would lower your property values. You then hooked up with anti-charter/anti-Prop 39 activists such as Robert Skeels and Karen Wolfe, who spoon-fed you more lies about CWC and charters.

CWC has two other co-locations in LA that work fine. Much has been made of the missed paperwork deadline, but what has not been made as clear is the paperwork for all three schools was submitted the same day, and the other two schools were allowed to remain on their campuses. LAUSD wanted CWC relocated because they realized your neighborhood is unsafe. That is what is going to lower your property values, by the way. It’s also the only reason LAUSD is not putting another school at Stoner, despite the fact that the campus is half empty. They would rather squeeze CWC into Westchester because LAUSD knows Westchester residents are not violent and crazy, like you are.

As for your comment about “contrasting demographics,” CWC has a diverse population, including families from your neighborhood whose demos mirrors Stoner demos. In fact, CWC gives a preference in its lottery to low-income families. The difference between CWC and Stoner is that has all races, religions, income levels and ability levels are represented at CWC. It is a rainbow school with rich and poor, black, white, Asian, and Latino. It represents the dream of Brown v. Board of Ed, while Stoner is a school of kids that are primarily from one race and income level.

As for this charge that CWC did not service the neighborhood, I find that laughable, having personally manned face-painting and craft tables at multiple holiday events at Mar Vista Gardens Boys and Girls club, the local LAPD toy drive and events at Mar Vista family Center. We also donated Halloween costumes to the head start preschool. I am sure the kids will miss the neighborhood face painters. Will you be over there painting faces when we are gone?

I also have to remind you that your wife screamed at and chased away a local Latino CWC parent while she was doing outreach at a local swap meet and accused her of betraying her race. You also put out a flyer accusing CWC of poaching Stoner kids. So which is it? Did CWC poach or fail to service the neighborhood? You can’t have it both ways.

Now that this is over, all I have to say is, thank goodness CWC no longer has to deal with you and the handful of crazy neighbors that did whatever you could to harass and attack little kids who wanted nothing but to attend their lovely little school in peace. Go find someone your own size to pick on now.

Turn over a rock at any so-called grassroots protest against a charter school, and you will almost always find the teachers union is behind it, whipping up some sort of fake controversy. If the reporter had asked a simple question or done a simple Google search, he would have learned that Jose Benitez is an LAUSD teacher and a member of the UTLA teachers union. He’s a rather low-performing teacher at that, according to the LA Times’ value-added ratings of teachers:

Could it be that Benitez is “less effective than average” because he’s out on the sidewalk protesting CWC during school hours, when he probably should be in class teaching his kids? I’d like to see the reporter ask him. His protest Friday was timed to coincide with CWC’s first official tour. What a shock. The whole things reeks of union dirty tricks.

Fortunately, parents like me, who are drawn to charter schools, tend to be informed enough to see through this baloney. I was on the CWC tour, and many of the parents were talking about how ridiculous the so-called protest was. At least one parent enrolled her child on the spot before the tour even ended. So if the union was trying to damage CWC, it failed.

I haven’t decided where to send my preschooler to kindergarten yet, but if anything, teachers like Benitez only reinforce my resolve to send my kid to CWC, which isn’t bound by the union’s absurd lifetime tenure rules that protect ineffective teachers like him. Charter schools can hire and fire whomever they want, and CWC snagged an amazing teacher from the prestigious private school, Wildwood. CWC’s curriculum is innovative, progressive and project-based, and the kids all seem to be having a great time learning. CWC Hollywood’s API scores in the 900s show that the model works.

Meanwhile, according to the LA Times, 98% of non-charter LAUSD teachers receive tenure and lifetime job protections after two years with little or no review. And once they do, it’s almost impossible to fire them, even if they’re drunk on the job (which happened at a Mar Vista neighborhood elementary school last year), or if they repeatedly miss work or constantly show kids non-educational movies all day. Or worse. Much worse.

Hell, LAUSD couldn’t even fire Mark Berndt, who fed kids in his class his own semen, blindfolded them, put cockroaches on their faces and took pictures of the entire thing. LAUSD had to pay him to leave, and he’s sitting in jail now, receiving his pension for life, paid by taxpayers like me.

In fact, hundreds of teachers accused of misconduct are sitting in so-called teachers jails drawing their entire salaries while doing nothing, while LAUSD pays substitutes more than $800,000 a month to cover their classes.

Last year, the powerful CTA teachers union killed a bill that would have made it slightly easier to fire teachers who sexually abuse students. Then they tried to pass a sham bill this year to cover for the political fallout from protecting pedophiles instead of kids. Gov. Jerry Brown, generally an ally of CTA, vetoed the bill, saying it made the problem even worse.

I’m generally supportive of unions, but I can think of no other profession that makes it nearly impossible to fire not only poor performers but those who actually endanger children. As long as that’s the case, the march to innovative and high-performing charter schools like CWC will continue unabated. The unions know this, which is why they use such underhanded tactics to attack fledgling charters.

And to Steve Zimmer, the school board member with backing from the teachers unions, your quote about CWC was insulting. I would suggest it is in your “enlightened self interest” to listen to your constituents, who include parents demanding change, not just special interests that put the rights of adults ahead of the protection and education of our kids.

There may be some legitimate logistical concerns that need to be worked out as CWC gets off the ground, and I’m fairly certain they can be addressed with a little constructive dialogue. However, I suspect these protest shenanigans are less an issue of parking than an anti-charter political agenda in disguise.

I can’t speak for every single parent, but I personally park carefully and legally. A police officer came out to observe our morning drop-off and spoke directly with our principal. After that consultation, our school sent out an e-mail with guidelines to parking in the neighborhood, urging us to make no U-turns, not pull into anyone’s driveways, not block driveways, and not move trash cans on the curb. Every parent I have talked with is making good-faith efforts to minimize inconvenience to the residents.

Our school has a drop-off system so that parents don’t have to park, but can quickly drop her or his child at the curb, and a parent volunteer will escort that child to the classroom. (The school is currently TK-2nd grade — these are little kids.)

I see the care and conscientiousness that CWC brings to my child also reflected in the efforts the school is making to have a good relationship with the neighborhood.

This is why I’m confused by the rather aggressive stance of Mr. Benitez. I haven’t had any negative interactions with residents that I have seen in the neighborhood. We wave to each other, or say hello as we cross on the sidewalk. We are hardly ignoring or brushing off the parking concerns. We are taking them very seriously and are making steps to mitigate the problem.

So, particularly given the contents of the flyer Mr. Benitez gave me, I can’t help but wonder if the parking issue is just an excuse to attack CWC on other grounds. Whatever the conflict is, there must be a better way to handle this so that I don’t have to take my 5-year-old past a bunch of adults shouting angry slogans.

I thought this issue was about parking, until I walked by Mr. Benitez when I came to pick up my daughter, and he handed me a small, yellow flyer filled with anti-charter-school links.

I understand, very well, that many charter schools are run by for-profit corporations that have no interest in educating children, but endeavor only to enrich themselves. And so when I decided to enroll my daughter, I looked very carefully at the mission and methods of CWC. And what I found was a community of dedicated educators committed to teaching every single child to her or his fullest potential through methods that truly engage the child and draw on a natural love of learning.

Also, as the daughter of a lifelong teacher, I am invested in knowing that the teachers at any school that I or my kids attend are not being exploited. And I know that at CWC they are not exploited.

I was particularly offended to see the question on Mr. Benitez’s flyer: “Does CWC recruit only certain populations or are minority students, special needs students and students with low test scores excluded?” Such a question could only come from someone who has a generic animus against charter schools with no knowledge of CWC. My daughter has friends — not just classmates, but actual friends — at CWC who are African-American, Latino/a, Asian-American, white, and mixed. Every scrap of information from the school is in both English and Spanish. The principal holds “cafecitos con el director.” And I know for a fact that special needs students are welcomed at CWC, because my friend’s son who has special needs attends CWC and loves it.

If this issue is truly about parking, I know that I, as a CWC parent, and we, the CWC community, are committed to finding a solution. But I strongly object to anyone who protests our school using “parking” as a cover for an ulterior motive.

In reply to one poster above, CWC founding parents regularly volunteer for events at Mar Vista Gardens’s Boys & Girls Club and at the Westside Childrens Center, both of which serve the neighborhood’s low-income families. Last week, the school donated Halloween costumes to kids at a local head Start preschool. Part of the school’s mission is to teach kids to be active members in service to their community. CWC and the families that attend the school take that mission seriously. And I know the principal has worked hard to address any traffic, parking and others issues that arise as a new school gets off the ground.

Wow. It is unfortunate the neighborhood and the school could not find a reasonable solution before the school opened. What caught my attention even more than the contents of this article, was the slander in these comments. It’s too bad, that we as responsible citizens, cannot respect each others’ differences of opinions without launching personal attacks. . Such negativity. If someone handed me a flyer, I would read it, do my research and make an educated decision about it. It is ill natured to attack someone’s professional life and their personal integrity. The comments made above, do not sound like they would come from someone who is a “citizen of the world.” Instead of addressing the actual issue of parking, traffic, the location, people have launched a negative attack against an individual, who sounds like he is just trying to ensure the well being of his neighborhood. If you really are a “citizen of the world” and would like to make peace with that neighborhood, I suggest you put your energy into coming up with a solution to the real issue at hand, instead of writing mailicious comments.

It is Benitez that launched an attack on CWC. Protesters yelling at young children as they walked to and from school, handing out literature full of libelous and laughable misinformation. This was during school hours when he should have been at his own school doing his job — teaching kids. I think your comment is directed at the wrong party.

How is it slander when it is fact? Fact – Jose Benitez is a teacher at Charnock Road Elementary. Fact – he was seen at the morning protest during his school hours. Fact – Citizens of the World is a public school. (Some of the protestors on Friday morning thought it was a private school.) Fact – the protestors carried placards that said: CWC with a circle around CWC and a diagonal line through it – which the students of the school, aged 4-7 years old, could read and understand. Fact – the protest was about trying to shut the school down. Jose Benitez even mentioned to a parent: “LAUSD told me if I had a protest, they would shut down the school.” Fact – the information disseminated was filled with erroneous information. Fact – CWC wants a diverse student population and has a diverse student population – both economically, socially, and culturally.

Absolutely, such negatively, Lindsey, including your comment and the actions of the protestors. Fact – Stoner Elementary allocated the space of their campus to CWC. Fact – schools who co-locate have separate point of entry for a multitude of reasons, including the fact that the two schools have different discipline policies. Fact – staff and parents of Braddock Elementary attended meetings at CWC in regards to parking, when they do not live in the area and have disseminated false information about CWC. Fact – CWC met with Jose Benitez and others prior to the protest. Fact – parents of CWC walked around the neighborhood and talked to neighbors to hear their perspective regarding traffic and parking, prior to the protest.

Fact – having a successful public school in the neighborhood increases the housing value of the neighborhood.

I do find it amusing that parents and staff at Braddock gifted magnet were partially behind this attack on CWC because they did not want CWC sharing space at their under-enrolled school. So much of the propaganda against CWC that they are distributing actually applies to gifted magnet schools such as theirs. They accuse CWC of excluding kids with low tests scores when CWC admission is done strictly by lottery. Braddock only admits kids who receive high tests scores or are deemed gifted by a psychologist. How many kids in Braddock’s gifted magnet are low-income minority kids? Which school has an elitist model?

mm,
Jose has not been to Any protest during school hrs. I know and recognize my neighbors. You may have seen him after he got off work. Plenty of cwc parents have video of the protest and none with show him there.

mm
on January 21, 2014 at 9:21 am

We can agree to disagree. He was there during school hours. He may have ducked the cameras. He was there. It was during school hours that he met the reporter of the article too – outside of CWC.

Anon
on February 19, 2014 at 10:40 am

As a CWC parent, I’ve been had contact with Mr. Benitez three times during school hours, including two ‘protest’ events.

Anonymous
on February 8, 2014 at 4:58 pm

Benitez was there during CWC’s first tour, the Friday after this story appeared, during school hours. The tour happened while the kids were in class. CWC and prospective parents saw him, spoke to him, confirmed who he was and that he worked at Charnock.

Lindsey, I think it’s a big problem when someone represents himself as a voice of a local community, but in fact he’s representing other interests. I did read his flyer, and I have done the research. Not only are the insinuations wrong, but they don’t have anything to do with parking and traffic, either.

If someone in the neighborhood does have a problem with the way parents are parking, I’d like to hear from those residents and have an open, honest dialogue so we can solve the problem.

Like I said above, we have made efforts to alleviate the traffic. If those efforts aren’t working, then we need to hear honest voices from the neighborhood residents, not propaganda from people with a hidden agenda against charter schools.

Lindsey – commenting on this I am going to assume that you are aware of the facts of Mr. Beneitz’s actions. Given that…I find it hard to believe that a sincere and honest observer would summize these actions as being born of soley traffic gripes. I mean no disrespect…but if so, I would have to question that person’s ability to read between the lines. If parents that hold this conclusion about his motives are in fact wrong…it would be fairly simple to prove so by constructively engaging in discourse seeking a solution. As opposed to drawing a line in the sand and basically saying these traffic concerns are unfixable; in short the only solution is if CWC leaves. What is unfixable are situatons where there are concerns/agendas that are being concealed…if all involved can be open and transparent…then we may be able to arrive at a point of fairness & harmony. Until then we are merely doing this dance with illusion in vain.

“CWC Schools is under an IRS investigation.When the national network opened, they told the IRS they would not charge any fees to the schools they opened, and would only raise money and distribute grants. But now, instead of giving any grants they are skimming 8% of your child’s per pupil funding. That’s millions of dollars taken away from NY students and given to a few wealthy executives in California — and to the IRS, that’s fraud.”

Charter schools can be great…when they follow the rules, work with the community and have everyone’s blessing. It’s a win-win there.

As for Mr. Benitez being a less than average teacher…I would be too in a low-income South Central part of Los Angeles. Have you checked out that neighborhood? I’d never send my kids there nor live anywhere near there.

Who are the kids attending the charter? Why aren’t they going to their local public schools?

As for the traffic issues…it would be nice if they could figure out a solution together. It’s a shame that they opened an entrance on a residential street in front of regular homes. I’d be upset too if an entrance to a school was right in front of my house or even near it. Don’t they have a regular entrance all students use?

The LA Times value-added ratings look at the test scores of kids before they enter a teacher’s class, and they examine whether the student improved or fell behind while in that teacher’s class. Are you saying low-income kids from South Central are unable to learn? That they can’t be taught? What an incredibly racist sentiment.

The fact is, many charter schools in tough neighborhoods are able to successfully educate low-income kids. Not only do low-income kids at these charter schools excel academically, but they have lower rates of teen pregnancy and incarceration.

The deck is stacked against low-income kids at unionized public schools because school districts that are unable to fire crappy teachers, and all the lemons get transferred to poor schools after wealthy parents complain and push them out.

Teacher seniority rules also leave the most inexperienced teachers clustered in low-income schools because teachers with seniority can ask to be transferred to nice, wealthy areas. Because of the last hired – first fired union layoff rules, low-income schools face more staff disruption when there are budget cuts.

Those who oppose charter schools basically think poor kids should be left to rot in failing schools and should have no choice to go elsewhere. It is such a racist, elitist sentiment, and I find it disgusting.

As for all of the libelous baloney you linked to above, it comes from blogs run by teachers union hacks and people who oppose charter schools in New York. You don’t cite a single credible, unbiased media source. We all know the teachers unions will make up whatever they have to to try to attack charter schools. And the information you linked to is simply absurd. All charter schools charge management fees in order to operate, and most charge far more than CWC because CWC is a nonprofit organization.

CWC Mar Vista also has a population with 40% free and reduced lunch kids, which was exactly the target. This mixed socio-economic model works. That’s why CWC’s API scores are in the 900s, even though 40% its kids are low-income. It can be done with educators that work hard and care about educating every single child.

Too bad you have given up on kids in “that neighborhood.” Thank goodness charter schools haven’t.

Just to clarify, all charters are free public schools. They use a tiny percentage of state funding for overhead/management. If you look at the percentages, it’s on par with some of the most efficient nonprofits in any sector.

And the bottom line, of course, should be the results. Are the kids getting a great education? At CWC, no one questions the fact that they are. It’s a progressive, diverse, project-based school with a model similar to that of Open Charter Magnet, and it gets great results. The kids are happy there, too.

So if Iive in an apartment and there is school entrance put near my aparment…am I somehow less entitled to gripe about that as would a person who lives in a house? What are we talking about here people? Schools exist in our cities and they all have drop off points and entrances…so who is the police/governing body that gets to say who should have to deal with such a (WEIGHTY GRIEVANCE)? Are you seriously going to keep threading this traffic/parking theme into everything? Lastly, the kids that attend these schools are kids of parents who want their child to be in a school that is not handcuffed to deficient and narrow curriculm and learning methods. I wish our LAUSD Board and it’s proxy agents would be concern about changing that current norm in our schools…but it seems they are to busy dealing with traffic issues brought about by charter schools. When they decide to re-direct their energies and foocus on what a well rounded education looks like…then we may see the actual fruition of something that may bring charter-school parents to consider the option of non-charter schools.

The Argonaut story on 10.16.13 erroneously reports that a conflict exists over traffic woes at Stoner Elementary. The title should have been LAUSD teacher, Jose Benitez, hides behind the topic of “parking” in order to promote his agenda to malign Citizens of the World Mar Vista (“CWCMV”) charter elementary school.

What wasn’t reported was that Benitez was handing out leaflets… er.. propaganda… against CWCMV, alleging discrimination in its recruiting, which has absolutely no basis in reality. Benitez’s issues had nothing to do with parking as reported by the Argonaut. Otherwise, his leaflets would have been about parking and not about CWCMV.

It’s unfortunate any parent at CWCMV must dignify Benitez’ ridiculous allegations with a response, but it is necessary because the Argonaut didn’t fully investigate this story. As a Founding Parent of CWCMV and the mother of a daughter who is multiracial (Native American/ Jewish/), I can say unequivocally that the school recruits an incredibly diverse student body.

A beautiful multitude of racial, cultural and socio-economic backgrounds is represented at CWCMV. In fact, I do not know how anyone could possibly conclude that discrimination exists at our school when so many of our families are biracial or multiracial. CWCMV also gives a preference in its lottery to low-income families. The diversity that exists among our families is what makes our school dynamic, and it is part of the school’s very mission.

Finally, he alleges that CWCMV somehow excludes kids with low tests scores, which is baffling. Admission to CWCMV is done by lottery, not testing. Kids of all abilities and a variety of special needs attend and thrive at the school.

As to the issue of parking, according to Benitez, the solution is to have CWCMV families use the Braddock entrance. Benitez and the other homeowners do not want the traffic on Lindblade, and yet they do not mind increasing traffic on an already congested Braddock, which already feeds into the school, and is a major thoroughfare during high-traffic drive time. While moving the drop-off entrance to Braddock may benefit Benitez and his neighbors on Lindblade, it is not fair to the residents on, and just off, Braddock, including apartment dwellers and the low-income residents of Mar Vista Gardens. Perhaps it is Benitez who is discriminating against his less fortunate, non-home-owning neighbors.

LY, we the lindblade residents are not the reason for the influx in traffic, we are not the ones creating dangerous situations nor would we want to have this happen to anyone else including you.
There is no reason why all the students in the same campus cannot also use the same entrance.
Can we agree that lots of cars equal traffic, anywhere?

The main issue with cwc is the location of their entrance gate and the traffic it has brought with it.
I am pro-charters, pro-private, and pro-traditional schools as long as they deliver responsible and caring citizens. I want to share my experience as a lindblade resident who lives in one of the homes in front of the cwc entrance gate.
I have lived in this area of mar vista all my life, by choice, because I love it so much. It’s a beautiful community.
Imagine one evening, as you are taking your daily evening stroll around your neighborhood you notice car after car driving around and around your neighborhood looking for and taking up every parking space, you almost get hit by one in your drive way when it unexpectedly turns in to it. They are even parking in red spaces and blocking driveways. You become worried because this is very unusual. You notice all the people are walking into the back entrance of the school across from your home. This is even more unusual, in fact its the first time you have seen any activity this late in the school. There is what seems to be a party going on. It turns out to be a meet and greet for the new school parents and faculty that will be co-locating in a few days. We were taken by surprise. A new school within our community school. This is how we found out about cwcs’ co-location plan, just days before it happened, and now we know why. Had they been responsible and caring citizens they would have reached out to us, the neighbors who would be immediately affected by their entrance gate. They chose not to. Would they agree to such thing in their neighborhood?
The majority of the neighborhood children walk to the stoner campus and enter thru the main gate. The majority of the cwc children arrive by car (over a hundred) and all of them enter thru the back gate located on the residential side. Yes, in front of my house. Both schools have different starting and dismissal times and both have after school daycare/activities. This makes for 6 waves of traffic now. First a few cars drop off SES students for the 7:45am start time, then over 100 cars drop of cwc students for the 8:30am start time. Over 100 cars rushing, pulling into driveways to make turns, double parking, moving trash cans on trash day, blocking driveways, leaving trash. It’s crazy. Most neighbors now spend our mornings inside because of the dangerous situation during drop offs. The Pick up time is an ongoing ordeal too. Stoner elementary lets out at 2:00pm, once again a few cars to deal with but not disruptive, then cwc students let out at 3:30 and are continued to get picked up past 6pm. And both schools have half days too, so even middays are now a parade of cars in my once quiet neighborhood. Also, before winter brake cwc held a concert/walk a thon on campus during school hours, disrupting both the neighbors and the students of stoner elementary. This event brought lots of traffic too because it was open to friends and family of cwc students. We the neighbors were not notified before, we just woke up to amlpified music one day. The event was big. The pictures on their own website show it.
Out of good faith I have only focused on the traffic situation that this charter co-location is causing in my neighborhood because, school politics and education preferences aside we are the mothers, children, seniors and hardworking people who just want to be able to enjoy our neighborhood again. There is talk that the charter school will double in size next year. That would mean double the cars and chaos. We wonder if they will outreach to our community before it happens or if they will just blind side us again? We hope they find it in their hearts and minds to do what’s best for the safety of all.
I’m not a house owner, but this is my home. Cwc parents, you are welcome to buy, rent any of the now available due to this co-location. The house right across the gate is now available. The tenants moved out three months after cwc classes started.

I want to reiterate that the location of the CWC gate is NOT the decision of CWC. It is LAUSD and Stoner Elementary who say where the CWC gate goes, and they have said that CWC must use a separate gate.

Your concern about traffic as the school grows is a valid one. I can only assume that, as the school gets bigger, we will expand the drop-off system, as many other schools do. When I lived across the street from a school, the school created a system where all students except kindergartners were dropped off and picked up — they opened the gates to the blacktop and parents drove their cars along a semicircle route in the mornings and afternoons. I know for a fact that we are constantly searching for solutions, and I’m sure that we will figure out how to handle increased traffic.

While I think many parents might be interested in moving closer to the school, it’s difficult, in the present atmosphere, to imagine that any of us might be welcomed to the neighborhood. I hope that this situation might change as we try to work towards a compromise.

I am a longtime resident on Lindblade and what I saw happen in our neighborhood this Friday afternoon was an embarrassment. I am ashamed that we have let the Benitez family exploit our community spirit for their own motives.

What our neighborhood collectively did today was ugly bullying plain and simple. It was not a peaceful protest against CWC, it was a mob that went so far as to use our own children to engage in something they do not understand.

What kind of lesson are we as residents teaching ALL the children? The yelling, teasing and taunting achieves nothing. This has gotten ugly enough. Shame on me for not speaking up earlier. Shame on us for going along with Jose for all this time.

I am glad the police eventually showed up but what does this say about us as a community? What do we honestly expect to accomplish by continuing to harass and intimidate little kids on their way to and from school? I’ve been to the meetings and yes there are some logistical issues with the separate CWC entrance but they are being addressed in a respectful adult manner.

Oh my goodness, bless you for saying this. I’m a nurse and I sit with my disabled patient 3 days a week in his classroom at CWC. This school has been an absolute godsend for him.

Yesterday, I was absolutely terrified. I had never been there for any of the other protests and I’ve never been a part of anything that was protested against. We were celebrating class birthdays outside at 2:45pm when the chanting and cowbell ringing (?) was at its loudest. I was on the verge of tears outside listening to such hatred. I walked away for a minute towards Stoner’s back gate (one that ALSO opens onto Lindblade) and saw it was wide open and that small children perhaps 6,7, or 8 years old were walking in caring signs saying, “Goodbye!” to CWC. Children angrily approaching other children they’ve never met with hatred. I’m completely shocked.

As for how CWC handled the situation, Principal Kerr emailed parents and asked them to please not respond to protests and not to return the anger and hatred. Ms. Kerr stood out there alone and tried to make peace. Bless her. She later emailed parents saying this:

“I appreciate how upsetting today’s event was to everyone in our community.
Thank you for leaving campus with such grace and respect, despite the adverse situation. As I stood on the sidewalk, I heard parents talking to their children about democracy and people having different points of view, I saw families smile and wish Stoner parents a good weekend, and I couldn’t have been prouder of our community. ”

Unfortunately, I never received the email from my patient’s mother warning me of the protest so I unknowingly parked in front of the school’s new (and not yet ready for use) gate, where the crowds were gathered. Cut back to our birthday celebration….. The entire first grade class had to rush back into the classrooms to avoid the shouting and cowbells (the later of which was clearly meant to interrupt these small children during class so that they could hear the crowd of people they’ve never done anything to or harm in anyway chant, “Stoner yes! Charter no!”). Even with the classroom door closed, we couldn’t ignore the noise.

One of the first graders said the people were “cheering” and my patient’s teacher said they absolutely were and had to reassure these FIRST GRADERS that they were safe and that their moms and dads were going to be there soon and we’d be using a different gate for dismissal.

I, on the other hand, have never been so scared in my entire life. I had to beg my little patient, the sweetest, funniest, most incredibly wonderful little person ever born to please not look at the crowds and I warned him that I might have to carry him to the car. I also turned his hearing aid off so he wouldn’t have to hear the crowd.

Thankfully, the police had blocked off the street and the crowd that was only a few feet away didn’t swarm us as we got to my car, as I’d anticipated based on their behavior thus far. We were stuck between the police tape, but Miss Kerr came to our rescue and lifted the tape enough so my car could get out. My little patient later said he wasn’t scared and it was clear that he didn’t understand what was going on. Meanwhile, I could barely contain my tears on the drive back to his house.

I’m sorry that parking has become difficult, but I honestly can’t begin to fathom how certain residents believe that their behavior alone yesterday is justifiable. The fact that they included their kids in such behavior is incomprehensible.

Your comment actually brought tears. My little girl goes to kindergarten at this CWC location and I have been feeling pretty disheartened about recent events. Friday morning, I saw Jose with his 2 small children in front of Stoner Elementary recruiting parents for the protest that he organized at CWC, and a sign encouraging people to protest against “segregation”.

Segregation is the last thing that CWC is teaching (I have learned to be more open and understating in my own life just from my daughter attending school here). Moreover, this topic ensights such anger, hostility, and hurt feelings, that I can’t comprehend why anyone could, in good conscience, bring this fight to where there is a large group of innocent children (ages 4 -7!!).

I can empathize about the parking. I lived in a neighborhood where a restaurant moved in. I’m sure that from time to time some inconsiderate parking issues occur on our behalf. That isn’t ok, and I know our principal works hard at making it a priority that we all use our manners when driving and parking in the neighborhood.

I feel like we could be a role model to our children and work this out in a peaceful and respectful way.

Thanks you for your honesty…i hope more residents will see this for what it is and and know that we are good (not perfect) humans trying to do the best we can for our kids and also trying to be fair to our residential neighbors.

I agree Ashamed neighbor. I was so sad to see someone vandalize the school and tear down CWC signs over the weekend. A close friend of mine has a severely disabled son who attends CWC. He’s had dozens of surgeries in his 7 years on the planet, including several open heart surgeries. I’m afraid this attack on his school will break his heart even more.

It’s so unfortunate that the relatively wealthy Benitez family (Jose and Adam now, too), which owns many properties in the neighborhood, is now spreading lies about CWC to Stoner parents and exploiting poor families because of some perceived threat to their personal property values and because of a personal grudge against charter schools.

The disruption to the neighborhood that I saw Friday was certainly far worse than any disruption created by the school. Doesn’t my friend’s disabled son deserve to be educated without harassment? Maybe the Benitez family should pick on someone its own size. It’s hard to believe this man would choose to work with children, given how he treats them. Of course, if the Benitez family incites people to commit crimes, they could get slapped with a RICO suit. Perhaps that would solve the problem.

In case anyone in our neighborhood had any doubts or questions as to the true motives behind Jose and Adam Benitez’ continued anti-charter crusade that is now most definitely hurting ALL of our property values and making open houses very difficult, I’ll leave these public links here for everyone to make their own informed decisions on:

*(you will have to copy and paste the whole Google cached link – b/c the original Trulia question posted by Jose back in September was coincidentally removed last night right after I privately asked Adam for an answer to a very simple & straightforward question – fortunately Google saves everything)

My question to Adam is about his continued involvement & coordination with several very prominent anti-charter activists and why he thought it would be a good idea to allow them to use our neighborhood for their political agenda? Just do some digging on Adam’s blog or google “CWC protest” and you will quickly find the activists that I am referring to.

Talk to any of the listing agents for the houses that were very recently pulled off the market in our neighborhood. What do you think prompted them to do so given the excellent seller’s market that we are currently in and tight inventory ANYWHERE on the Westside?

UPDATE: THE TRUTH – April 2014
Co-location has many issues. Most of the postings on this site demonstrate ignorance and lack of understanding of the issues. It is full of hateful, erroneous messages by some spiteful anonymous individuals.
First, most residents and homeowners surrounding the school disapprove of the co-location. LAUSD and CWC decide entrances and locations, either mutually or by accepting conditions. The problem that residents’ have is that a school is considered to be a state entity. Therefore, it is exempt from zoning, city planning, environmental impact reports and city safety codes. This upset residents, regardless of the school, because it creates traffic, parking and noise issues and thus, affects home values based on proximity. This is why residents have protested in the past and continue to have signs posted reading “Citizens of the World Charter hurts our neighborhood.” This kind of neighborhood backlash is unavoidable, unless proper planning steps are taken by both LAUSD and CWC and adhere to local city regulations and laws. It was not until March 2014, that any solution mentioned by LAUSD or CWC in Argonaut or LA Times articles were put into place. However, their solution never resolved residential issues.
Second, Stoner parents, students and the community have been marginalized by CWC’s presence. When two publicly fund schools exist on the same campus, in this case, the divide can be viewed as racial, classist and/or an anti-community. Let’s look at some real facts: RACIAL DIVIDE: CWC students are 51% white, while Stoner Elementary students are 2% white. SOCIO-ECONOMIC DIVIDE: CWC students are 63% economically advantaged, while Stoner is 3%. NEIGHBORHOOD DIVIDE: At least 71% of the CWC student population live outside of the Stoner neighborhood. This number is most-like to be the 90th percentile if exact data were available. Through this data, it is easy to see why the Stoner community would have racial, classist and/or anti-neighborhood issues. This was documented in an article by La Opinion demonstrating parental protest and discord. Furthermore, CWC – “Mar Vista” was never intended to be in “Del Rey” or service the local neighborhood. In addition, separate entrances, schedules and previous barriers which allow zero interaction within the schools makes the campus feel segregated. The divide has become so embedded in the community that Culver City Boyz (the local gang) sends messages through bold tagging on the CWC tarp by crossing out CWC, writing “F— you” and “Stoner Rules.”

Third, why is it difficult to mend these differences? If you read the posted comments on this site, it is easy to tell why. If you have an issue with CWC, you become personally attacked for expressing your opinion. It is culturally embedded in these CWC’s parents to attack the person, not the issue. If you have a problem with CWC, it is your problem or you’re part of some grand anti-charter conspiracy. For these people, their level of cultural competency and respect is low and only fuels, rather than resolves, any issues. Their ignorance is embedded in the Karma Ticket story. Not only is a Karma ticket culturally and religiously offensive to Buddhists, but to ask someone to fix a problem created by the individual, demonstrates ignorance and zero self-awareness of their actions. These CWC parents and the CWC organization need to look deep within themselves and ask what they have created. What does it mean to be a “Citizens of the World” and what impact have they left on the world? Our Del Rey neighborhood never had any of these issues until CWC arrived.

TRUTH is by nature self-evident. As soon as you remove the cobwebs of ignorance that surround it, it shines clear. – Mahatma Gandhi

I just want to say that CWC’s model is a mixed socioeconomic model, which has been proven to lift the achievement of low-income kids. There was a story in the New York Times Review section just this weekend about the benefits of educating wealthy and poor kids together, which is what CWC does. It is a model of integration, with 40% of the population low income and about half racial minorities. There are many special needs kids, too, all of whom are mainstreamed. Every race and income level and ability level is represented at the school — a model that Civil Rights activists have been striving to achieve for many years. It’s unfathomable that anyone could attack that as a bad thing or claim that it’s elitist. Does the prior commenter believe that low-income kids should only be educated with other low-income kids of the same race? Isn’t that the definition of segregation?

Does anyone still wonder why you guys went back to try and remove them?

Has Jose followed through with his suit against LAUSD for their audacity of complying with prop 39 regs? How crazy is is that you have elementary school traffic during drop off and pick up times given that you both live next to a public elementary school? Insane, huh??? I guess it would more amenable for you if the Stoner Elementary school campus was back to only being < 50% utilized?

2) You claim to not be anti-charter… Really? Allow me to refresh your memory:

Skeels is a full fledged anti-charter activist, LAUSD union operative, failed LAUSD Board Seat candidate, political extremist and manipulator. Guess who has become his little puppet in his crusade against CWC? (hint: check the nearest mirror for the answer Adam)

Actually, you and your wife make quite the team along with your friends at LAPOPS and your buddy Robert Skeels. It's impressive how closely you've followed his playbook to the T. It is actually very rude and presumptuous of you to have invited his politics into our neighborhood for your family's benefit. You must have a lot of time on your hands and very little consideration for the rest of us in the neighborhood.

The following is all directly from the LAPOPS (anti-charter) open Facebook group of which your wife is a member of and active photographic contributor to. Anyone with a Facebook account can simply do a search for LAPOPS and find these same postings (that is only if you don't have them deleted again!). *This is all publicly accessible and available at the time of this posting.

I will let the LAPOPS CWC thread and your wife's comments speak for themselves since we are all about getting rid of "the cobwebs of ignorance" to let the truth "shine clear", right? Her comment about our Stoner Elementary principal is particularly discouraging – 2nd link below 🙁

How about some of that truth you were talking about Adam? Do you even have an idea of how inaccurate and misleading the comments about SES and CWC are in that thread. Is this what you hold to as your collective truth?

Gandhi would be ashamed of your version of the "truth" and how you have manipulated everyone into being such bad neighbors for your own agenda.

I just want to use this forum to ask that whoever is organizing the anti-CWC protests to please try to cool things down. On Friday, someone on Lindblade screamed obscenities at a caretaker who was legally parked to pick up a kindergartener and threw a lit cigarette into the backseat of the car where the student’s toddler sibling was seated.

This is out of control.

On our end, we have had very positive and productive meetings with the Stoner Elementary community. Our relationship with Principal Stapleton is excellent. We have moved our gate and are working hard on our drop-off system in order to try to alleviate some of the traffic and parking problems. We continue our work with Mar Vista Gardens and other community organizations to build a relationship with our neighborhood.

While it’s true that CWC’s demographics are not the same as Stoner’s, this hardly means the difference is due to racism and/or classism, and as a CWC parent of color, I take exception to any accusations of racism. Unlike many charter schools that cherry-pick students to ensure a student body with a high socio-economic status (one that necessarily results in a high population of white students), CWC gives preference to kids who qualify for free- and reduced-lunch within our lottery system. Forty percent — nearly half — of our student body qualify. Additionally, the racial diversity of our community is very important to us, and all of us who are parents of color, as well as white parents whose children are of color through mixing or adoption, take it very personally.

Co-location can be a drag, or it can be an asset, depending on how everyone works together. After all, a larger student body on the Stoner campus can bring attention and resources to improve and strengthen facilities that students at both schools can enjoy, which can benefit the neighborhood as a whole. We would prefer to find solutions (which will involve compromises on all sides) that, ultimately, will work for everyone so we can all enjoy good schools and a strong neighborhood around them.

But within the different constituencies of neighbors, Stoner parents, and anti-charter activists, it seems a few are unwilling to compromise to make the co-location work. They just want us to leave. I understand that, even if I don’t agree with it. Where it crosses the line is when adults exercise verbal violence in front of 4- to 8-year-old kids. This happened at the protest, and at the incident on Friday. Our kids also got to exercise their new reading skills when someone spray painted “FUCK CWC” on our green fence screen.

This problem is an adult problem, and I’d like to see it settled between adults. Can we please leave our children out of it.

Thank goodness the police are now on site at school drop-off and pickup to keep the peace and to deter these anti-charter extremists from crossing over the line again from peaceful protest to lawlessness. The neighbor responsible was arrested, and a long-term safety plan is being pursued. In the meantime, the cops are there to keep the kids safe.

Do the protestors even realize that the school expected to move in a year? That’s been the plan all along, as the space won’t accommodate the growing school by fall 2015. Why are they putting so much energy into fighting something so temporary? What a bizarre waste of energy.

By way the way, I noticed that Steve Zimmer recently visited Stoner and is paying attention to Stoner parent demands to improve the school with smaller class sizes, music and art — all of which CWC students currently have. This is often the result when charters move in. The perceived “competition” for students and resentment over the education charter school students receive leads LAUSD to improve the home school where a charter co-locates. Everyone winds up benefiting from the co-location. Does Stoner think that political bigwigs would be paying attention if CWC hadn’t come in? This is a school that was 50% under-enrolled before CWC arrived. Stoner parents should take the long view and realize that CWC won’t be there forever, but CWC being there could wind up leading to improvements i their school that last long term. I hope so because all kids deserve a great education.

All compelling arguments. For or against CWC, if you want to be part of a solution, come out to the DRNC Education Committee meeting next Tuesday, May 13 7PM at the Del Rey Square housing. At the moment, this is the most legitimate forum for the sides to negotiate a solution that could resolve the tensions in the neighborhood.

Funny how things tend to disappear when the “cobwebs of ignorance” are removed. As of today, the LA POPS anti-charter Facebook group page has been deleted but fortunately, Google does store cached versions of pages for instances like this…

The page was originally an open FB group page for the organized, anti-charter folks behind all our neighborhood unrest and was located here:

Does anyone else find it interesting that you and your brother Jose would make the effort to edit & delete (unsuccessfully) his Trulia.com and Zillow.com postings from back in Sept 2013 and now, you and your collaborators try to cover your anti-charter FB page along with the posts that document your hostility both against CWC and SES leadership?

– Concerned Neighbors

*** Contrary to Adam’s very active imagination, these links are not tracked nor has anything ever been hacked.

Pro Tip 1: Open groups on FB are just that, open groups. The information about members, posts by members, pictures posted by members are all visible to the public.

Pro Tip 2: Google and http://archive.org/web/ store most everything online. Going back and trying to delete corroborating information or posts online just makes you look even worse.

I grew up on LIndblade and my mom still lives there. She’s one of the few residents who enjoyed seeing young parents and children on her street and embraced the addition of Citizens of the World. I live near Culver HIgh and traffic is always jammed in the morning and early afternoon. It’s that way at all schools.